TEST places maroon holiday cabin in Barcelona woodland

Architecture studio TEST has built the Prefab House Changeover cabin, which is clad in textured wood, in a forest in the province of Barcelona, Spain.

Located in a woodland dominated by Beech trees, the holiday cabin was designed by TEST to replace an existing pre-fab house that had fallen into severe disrepair.

Due to the area's building regulations, the studio had to work with the existing plot and designed three options for how the house could be remodelled.

Working with the clients, the decision was made to keep the nine shotcrete pillars that supported the existing shelter, and stack the new modular cabin on top.

Prefab House Changeover's design was led by the decision to manufacture the cabin offsite, as well as the cabin's remote location and its surrounding landscape and views.

It was built in a workshop in Barcelona city in eight balloon-framed modules, a construction method where vertical wooden posts are continuous from the foundation to the roof, creating a single, long wall structure.

When complete, all the modules were transported on trucks to the forest and assembled on site using mechanical fasteners for the joints.

Given the rainy climate, a flat roof was not an option so TEST designed a hip roof made of wood and clad in metal with an overhang providing a canopy around the cabin.

The house has large windows that are protected by full-height shutters incorporated into the wooden facade. They can be opened and fixed in either a 90 degree or 180 degree position, allowing ventilation through the open joints and the central space.

The cabin contains three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a lounge and avoids fixed features, meaning the rooms are as flexible as possible.

Its simple interiors are pine plywood board stained in red, while wood-textured panels from supplier Prodema were used on the exterior cladding. The roof is metallic and finished with sprayed cork for extra insulation.

Based in the city of Barcelona, TEST was founded by architects Julia Tarnawski, Albert Guerra, and Adrián Jurado, in 2022.

Other recent completed cabins include Hee House, a small holiday cabin on Sweden's west coast by Studio Ellsinger and Selenite, a retreat nestled into a forested site in Québec, completed by Canadian studio Naturehumaine.

The photography is by Gregori Civera.

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